Sarah D. Shearer

It’s rather difficult to write about current events when you don’t watch the news. But it’s impossible not to say something when you have a voice.

My goal is to find common ground with you, not find reasons to disagree. My goal is to somehow help us remember we have more in common than we think. My goal is to help us look at the bigger picture. These are lofty goals for a girl that refuses to engage in any sort of news (I caved a little this week). But, because I care about my friends, my country, Latin American countries, and family in general, here is my whisper added to the cacophonous stream of angry voices I hear and see daily.

I am thrilled to see righteous indignation over a poorly handled situation.  When you are dealing with as convoluted of a problem as immigration, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for government leaders to find a place to begin. In my mind, I begin in  a Honduran woman’s world, because this is what I know.

She has given everything for her children. Her boyfriend and the father of her daughters left her for someone else, and each day she shows her commitment to her family all over again as she rolls her calloused hands over cornmeal and water to make tortillas for her community. It’s not much, but it’s what she knows. She doesn’t read well, but she knows there is value in it and she wants her daughters to be more educated than her. Everything is done with them in mind.

So when she scrapes enough together to think that maybe, just maybe, they could make the trip to the USA, she is elated. from birth, she has heard stories of this sparkling land of possibility, of promise. She knows some friends that have made it, and when she hears about the schools, and the ability to make more money, she isn’t thinking about legality and due process and illegally crossing a border. She’s thinking, there’s hope, and it may be within my grasp. So they go. Buoyed by sheer desperation, they brave unimaginable odds, and arrive at the border, only to be separated from her children for breaking the law. “No soy una madre mala!” She screams to the officers as they carry her away. She was blinded by her mission, refusing to think that she, a determined mother, could encounter anything but open arms from this country she had heard so much about.

She didn’t realize her view of this country was flawed. Though founded as a place, a refuge for immigrants seeking sanctuary, over time, laws had to be made and borders had to be secured. It becomes so easy to take advantage of a generous relative, and think that because they have offered themselves, there are no boundaries.

As more people clamored to our borders, the laws had to become more stringent. from one administration to the next, we have vollyed back and forth, and I would wager all I’ve got to say, if you are reading this, you couldn’t handle this a mite better than our WORST politician. It’s a mess. It needs to improve. But it’s not an overnight fix, and it’s not new either. Just because we are finding out about it now doesn’t mean it hasn’t been going on for decades. Now that you’ve seen pictures of crying children, you are called to act, but how?

My humble recommendation is to begin by praying for these countries they come from. Can you imagine being so desperate here in the states you were fleeing everything familiar and going to a place where they didn’t speak your language, just so your kids could survive? Can you imagine that kind of pain?

Now consider our leaders, trying to protect our country, trying to keep us secure, trying to focus on what we are dealing with here before we  invite more in under a welcome banner of possibility, when we are trillions of dollars in debt? Imagine dealing with thousands of people illegally immigrating, overwhelmed by the sheer number of people pouring in, and trying to protect children from incarceration? Can you see this is not an easy fix?

Pray for our leaders, pray for Mexico and Central America. Support artisans and families in these countries so they can stay in their home country.

Consider opening your home to one of the thousands of displaced children in the USA. The responsibility of caring for the orphan and the widow is not the government’s job, it’s the CHURCH’S.  Become a CASA. Foster. Adopt. Sponsor a child. Get online and see what you can send to the children at the border. There are so many ways to act, and so many ways to see the problem is so much bigger than this week’s news story. It’s a whole world of people who need love, homes, families.

There are laws that must be adhered to, otherwise we have no country. We can’t pretend to understand these laws, and we can hope and pray they improve. But unless you plan on becoming a politician or an immigration attorney, you are barking up the wrong tree.

Use what you already have. Spend your life on behalf others. There is so much you can do besides talk. Let this event spur you on to change your path, and maybe rethink your life. If you care about children and families, then devote your life to it, not just your facebook posts.

There is much work to be done.

I am not doing all I can, but I’m committing to do more.